A Bay Area artist, who goes by the name of Dicapria, plans to build a 14-foot-tall gummy bear mandala pyramid for this year's annual art bash in the middle of Northern Nevada's Black Rock Desert, Aug. 27 to Sept. 4.

"For me, the whole purpose of Burning Man is not the party. It's about experiencing the art that is made not for money," said Dicapria, 32, who is building her piece at American Steel Studios in Oakland.

In 2012, Dicapria began experimenting with gummy bears as a creative medium. Channeling her childhood enthusiasm for Lite Brites (the light-up boards with colored pegs), she wanted to create translucent designs that could be backlit. She needed a cheap material and had a "Eureka!" moment one day when she was eating a gummy bear, and thought "This is it!"

Since, she's been creating flat mandalas, geometric designs usually arranged on the floor by Tibetan Buddhist monks with brightly dyed sand. The first one she created on an old Plexiglas movie sign. When a friend commissioned her for a series of mandalas to use for a theater set, she started buying bags of gummy bears at the store, and then eventually in bulk online.

"There were hundreds of pounds of gummy bears in my living room. I found out there's way more reds, and it's a very specific smell," she said of her half-decade of gummy bear wisdom.

Dicapria, who now makes a living off of her gummy bear mandala designs and other art, has twice before attended Burning Man but didn't want to return until she had an art project to contribute. This year, her gummy bear mandala pyramid project was the recipient of a Burning Man honorarium grant, though she still needs the other half of her approximately $20,000 budget.

The bears will come in 10 colors and be made of liquid plastic instead of the actual gelatin snacks.

"We tried real gummy bears, but they melted in 81 degrees," said Dicapria. "If they can't survive in Oakland, they can't last at Burning Man."

The mini molded figures -- which will have triangle belly buttons, distinct paws and a cute little face -- will then be bound together in an epoxy resin to create the mandala designs. In other words, no nibbling of the pyramid allowed.

The mandalas will be set in the metal skeleton of the pyramid, and Burners will be able to enter the pyramid through a secret rotating entry.

Dicapria's hope is that, when people enter the pyramid at Burning Man, the daylight will illuminate the rainbow assortment of bears to create a stained glass effect. At night, she'll use LED lights to do the same.

"When you're surrounded by stained glass, you're usually surrounded by a church. I want people to feel like they can go into it and feel like it's a holy, sacred space, but without the religion," she said.